With the lack of rain this summer our hoses and sprinklers are getting a real work out! We've got an assortment of sprinkers but I think my favorite is the Tripod Sprinkler we got at Tractor Supply: http://www.tractorsupply.com/lawn-garden/garden-hose-hose-ac... For the territory they have to cover they work great, although these small impulse sprinklers reach a pretty good distance as well!

I'm not usually a fan of the wands but I have to say I really like the one my BIL got us for Christmas last year. He picked it up from Sears and even though it only has one adjustment (high or low flow), there's enough pressure for me to water a container on the deck from 10' away!

I got a tripod sprinkler, a shorter one at Walmart, a couple of years ago and it's GREAT. It's so easy to target exactly the area you want to water and since you can also adjust the length of the water, perfect for watering large areas down to smaller ones. I'd love to have one of those really tall ones from Tractor Supply.

They both look good. Deb, how is your water pressure? The folks who wrote reviews on your sprinkler said that it requires a lot of water pressure to get good range out of that sprinkler. My water pressure is not optimal, so I would hesitate to buy it for that reason.

Well....what distance do you want it to hit? I've always complained about our water pressure and we have three tripods. Usually we only have two running at the same time plus another small sprinkler and the tripods will hit areas 75' away, even with both of them going! My only complaint with them is having to check to make sure they haven't tipped over - they're not real heavy and if the wind picks up they'll occasionally fall over. Of course it probably doesn't help that Rick usually has them balanced on blocks of wood to get the direction of their spray "just right".

Well, my big bed is about 160 feet away from the house. I would like to be able to cover 75' with it at a stretch. That would mean that I could move it 5 times and cover almost all of both big beds in one day.

hart wrote:Don't your legs adjust to allow you to have them level, Deb? Mine has two sets of flip tabs that allow you to adjust each leg up or down to compensate for uneven ground.

Unfortunately no. The only adjustment is the height of the center pole. Bugs me because they weren't 'cheap' and some of the newer ones like yours are cheaper AND have the ability to adjust them. When the time comes to replace them I'm definitely going to be looking for different options.

I think I jinxed myself. Less than a week after posting how wonderful my watering wand was the darned thing just stopped working.

Don't you just hate that? I am forever begging DSO and other guys to repair my sprinklers. They malfunction so easily. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are cheap or expensive ones. They all get problems.

You can imagine the problems I have with sprinklers with all the minerals and grit in our well water. So far the tripod one is holding up fine. It has an impact sprinkler at the top, which can be unscrewed and replaced if it ever breaks, and I think the force of the water helps keep it clean.

Debbie, check your sprinkler and see if it has a head that can be replaced. If it does, you can get any impact sprinkler with a spike, unscrew it from the spike and screw it onto the tripod. I'd also check to see if any grit or rust around the working parts could be the problem. That's usually pretty easy to fix.

Coincidence you posted the link for Rain Barrels, I was just asking Rick last week what he thought - wondering if he thought this had been a good year for Rain Barrel sales or a bad year...considering it's been so dry?

hart, actually it's the watering wand that fritzed out on me. I had just written a note to the pet sitter telling her how to use it while we were gone, went to water the plants before leaving and no water would come through it! Rick thought something might have crawled up inside and clogged it but it was never detached from the hose?

I shoulda looked here first. I have a sprinkler to return to Lowes after using it for 40 minutes it BROKE
Thishttp://m.lowes.com/mt/www.lowes.com/pd_135713-306-7800PMGF_4...
Gilmour oscillating (good ol back and forth bar thingie)
Here's the more interesting part.
I went to Lowes dot com to do a product review.
" Not all reviews are published-" (does this mean they can pick and choose to give the best looking results?)
Then it sent me to a list of questions posted by people on all kinds of sprinklers and I had the option of answering any questions. Hell=O! Where the heck is the manufacturer of the product??? Why don't THEY answer the questions??

Found this eye opening- and will go back to Lowes and look for the tripod one hart recommends above.

"If you bring joy and enthusiasm to everything you do, people will think you're crazy" W. Haelfeli, New Yorker cartoon

I saw the Orbit Tripod one, it looks awesome, all metal, but I also saw an Orbit decorative one with two copper tube circles that spin, and a dragonfly motif in the center. And the pretty one was cheaper than the boring one. Worked great last night.==I even forgot and let it run 2x what I wanted to. And then we had a rain shower

"If you bring joy and enthusiasm to everything you do, people will think you're crazy" W. Haelfeli, New Yorker cartoon